UK police face fresh probe over racist murder

Britain’s Home Secretary Theresa May has ordered a new public inquiry into the racist murder of a black teenager that happened some 20 years ago.

May described as “profoundly shocking” new revelations that a police officer spied on the family of murdered Stephen Lawrence while a previous inquiry into the death was underway.

Stephen Lawrence was stabbed to death in a racist unprovoked attack by a gang of youths in Eltham, southeast London in April 1993.

Almost twenty years after his death, two people including Gary Dobson and David Norris were found guilty of murdering Stephen.

Now, a major review into police corruption in the original murder investigation led by Mark Ellison QC has found that a Metropolitan Police “spy” was working within the “Lawrence family camp” during the course of the judicial inquiry into matters arising from Stephen’s death.

The unnamed undercover officer was deployed by Scotland Yard’s Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), according to the report by Mark Ellison QC.

The report also reveals how British police used undercover officers to spy on the Lawrence family as they campaigned for justice.

“What the Home Secretary has announced today is 21 years overdue. Mark Ellison’s report has simply corroborated what I have known for the past 21 years and our long fight for truth and justice continues,” said Neville Lawrence, the father of murdered teenager in a statement.

The high-profile case, which remained unsolved for nearly two decades, hugely affected race relations in Britain.

The Metropolitan Police were blamed for “institutional racism” in an earlier public inquiry, which subsequently enforced a major reform of the justice system in England and Wales.